So, this is a Radio Drama Studio. Hello, im john wilson. Welcome to this cultural life, a radio four podcast in which i ask leading creative figures about the influences and inspirations that have fired their artistic imagination. My guest in this episode is sir kenneth branagh. A huge talent, a star of stage and screen for more than four decades now. Hes an actor, director, writer and film maker, whose credits range from hamlet to tenet, from henry v to thor. We spoke in the very atmospheric Radio Drama Studio of bbc broadcasting house. Ken, welcome to this cultural life. Thank you. A show about cultural inspiration, cultural influences. What is your earliest cultural memory, do you think . Something that had a big impact . I think, early doors, i can remember Winston Churchills funeral, i think it was 1965, seeing it on the television and just being told about the great man. The World Cup Final of 1966, where the nation stopped. And in our own household, my brother had a sort of flir
is this a moment of jeopardy for rishi sunak? tonight, the prime minister has lost two deputy chairman and one ministerial aid, and 58 of his own mps voted against him. has he lost his grip on his party? i ve been talking to one mp on the right of the party who defied the three line whip today. if we don t succeed in making the bill work and providing an effective deterrent that stops people setting off across the english channel illegally, then we will not be able to win the election. so, how much trouble is the pm s flagship policy in, if any? we ll discuss with two people in the know. also tonight, donald trump was the runaway winner of the iowa caucus. is he invincible? what donald trump has achieved here is remarkable. he is a phenomenon, especially when you consider that his attempt to overturn an election and unprecedented legal troubles do not seem to have dented the devotion of his supporters. and a mea culpa from fujitsu. we did have bugs and errors in the system, a
but elizabeth williams thought it was given too much time. bbc breakfast editor richard frediani told us, it wasn t just breakfast that covered the post office scandal extensively this week. that was true of most bbc outlets, and indeed the media in general. but why did it take a tv drama to bring the issue to such prominence? even one as powerful as this. tthey say money somehow gone missing from this branch, which it hasn t, and i have to pay it back, which i won t. so i say, prove it. prove that i m wrong and you re right. show me the figures . but they can t or won t do that. so now they want to close me down to shut me up because they don t want everyone knowing what i know. which is? that the fancy new computer system that they ve spent an arm and a leg on is faulty. chris williams emailed us to say, it has taken an itv drama and an anonymous viewer had the same concern. well, ifjournalism has been found wanting here, and we ll be exploring that question in a moment,
he s there at a pivotal moment. today, a senior commander with the islamist hezbollah movement was reportedly killed in an apparent israeli drone strike in southern lebanon. and israel s prime minister benjamin netanyahu was on the northern border today, where he signalled that he is prepared, if necessary, to escalate military operations in lebanon, with 80,000 israeli s now displaced from their homes. with 80,000 israelis now displaced from their homes. to the south, the death toll in gaza stands at 23,000, according to the hamas run health ministry. and so intense is the fighting that several aid agencies have now begun withdrawing medics from the only functioning hospital in central gaza. on his visit to qatar, secretary blinken said washington has an intense focus on preventing this conflict from spreading and a warning to some members of the israeli government. well, first in with regard to the lebanon. it s clearly not in the interest of anyone israel, lebanon, hez